The main objective of the study is to explore the mechanisms influencing the nature of civic engagement in sport federations with a particular interest in barriers undermining their functioning. The article is based on the multi-sited ethnographic study in three sport governing bodies in the Czech Republic (handball, football and sailing) and uses a combination of techniques such as participant and non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews and secondary analysis of available documents. The main barriers identified are seen as a product of encounters between local and national levels of sport governing bodies. The concept of social capital with its structural, relational and cognitive dimensions is presented as a tool to grasp the phenomena under study.